Akumal

It's time to share a few photos from our recent trip to the Yucatan peninsula. The most challenging part was the long hours of traveling to and from Anchorage. After leaving home at 10 p.m. one night, we arrived in Akumal (about 62 miles south of Cancun) by 7 p.m. the following night. We spent five days in a rented condo unit on the beach front. The blue Carribean was right there. (And, such a welcome change from the Anchorage scenery and temperatures!)

That sidewalk up to the condos is not made with rocks. Where I expected to see generic rock were pieces of brain coral and other items probably collected from the beach.

Alan was up bright and early the next morning to go hunting for breakfast. He found the Turtle Bay Bakery and Cafe and the Super Chomax grocery store. Yummy. Sweet, fresh papaya is one of my favorite treats in Mexico. Perfect for a delightful breakfast on the balcony!

In addition to snorkeling, walking the beaches, and relaxing we spent a day at Hidden Worlds Cenotes Park. We enjoyed snorkeling in two cenotes together. I had been unaware of the fresh water rivers beneath the peninsula. The snorkeling is in clear water with lots of stalactite, stalagmite, and flowstone formations in an awesome spectacle of geology and nature. Dad forgot to take his charged camera battery so we have limited of the cenotes. If you look closely you will see the stalactites and stalacmites. I am standing on a platform after doing down a hole in the ground and two sets of ladders to get to the take off point for snorkeling at this particular cenote.

Following our snorkeling in the cenotes, Alan did a scuba dive while I people watched and saw guys figure out how to use ropes to climb a coconut tree, chop down some fronds and coconuts. It seemed like it may have been their first such effort because of the many people involved in figuring out how to do it and the constant changes in technique. For some reason I thought if they lived and worked among the coconut trees they would be expert in climbing them. However, in the end the climber was at the top and the machete was successfully relayed up to him. I didn't get any pictures of the effort.

A jungle vehicle is used at Hidden Worlds to transport visitors to the various sites. Dad made sure I didn't get sunburned as we traveled to the cenotes ready for snorkeling. However, he forgot to take the same precautions for himself as he went out a second time for the scuba dive. Ouch, by evening he knew his shoulders and upper arms were burned. We spent the next day sheltered from the sun and he took great pains to avoid getting too much sun for the rest of the trip.

Alan didn't really get to drive, but the guide "let" him sit while the picture was taken. All passengers stood up in back to travel.

From Akumal we drove back north to Playa del Carmen and took the ferry to the island of Cozumel where we spent the next four days.